Title: AriseRating: GCategory: Charlotte "Chuck" Charles. Pushing Daisies.Spoilers: Pie-lette (1x01).Disclaimer: Owned by others. Pay them.Author's Note: For mspooh because I wasn't able to fulfill on her PD "Five Times" prompt.Summary: "She has so little experience with living, she might as well be an expert in dying."

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She is, she thinks, the same in life after death (or before death, or instead of death) as she could have ever expected to be. That doesn’t say much since she never expected to live a second time, but she wouldn’t be honest if she didn’t admit to having been somewhat preoccupied with dying since she was ten.

Aunt Vivian liked to call it wrapped up. “Charlotte is currently wrapped up in death,” she would say, and Chuck took to envisioning it like a cloak, a presence like an imaginary friend.

Ned says it doesn’t work that way, that there is no shadow of death waiting in the periphery. He is, she supposes, proof that death can be defied, or circumvented.

She is comforted by the fact that she has been there once; it wasn’t a particularly pleasant way to go, but she has so little experience with living, she might as well be an expert in dying.

==

She is disappointed but not surprised by the lack of transformation in herself now that she is living again. She is still Chuck, and this is a concept that both pleases and frustrates her. There is familiarity in too many things, and a restless, reckless, fearless need to feel more.

Ned understands, though he says he is not impulsive by nature.

They agree her circumstance proves otherwise, but he notes that it is only a two time thing. Three times, he says, and he’ll concede the point.

==

She has determined that there was an element of impulsiveness in her from the beginning (Aunt Vivian referred to it as “liveliness”), but it was acting upon this impulse that brought death to her door in the first place.

Again, there is relief in recognizing this part of herself. She can now be impulsive and fully aware of the possible consequences. It is enlightening.

==

When she slips back home to rescue and savor a jar of her honey, the accomplishment fills her with joy. She did not die!

Ned makes Honey Apple and Honey Pecan pies, and Emerson orders a slice of both every day until the pies are consumed and the honey jar stands empty. Ned puts it on display and she thinks some impulses are worth the risk.

==

After all, she is (now that she has died) somewhat preoccupied with living.